Paul and Lucy Spadoni periodically live in Tuscany to explore Paul’s Italian roots, practice their Italian and enjoy “la dolce vita.”
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Monday, November 2, 2015

First day of Italian home ownership confirms our choice of house, location

Saturday, November 31

It’s moving day, and one
might think that we’d want to get up early and get working right
away, but it was not so. Our apartment at the Casolare is clean, tidy
and toasty warm, and it has one of the best showers we’ve every
encountered. Moving means disorder, stress and back strain. We knew
we would have no Internet access in our new home, until we could
figure out how to get wi-fi installed (and we’re not sure we want
to do this yet, since we are only here for less than two weeks until
we come back for a longer stay in February), but we had a good connection at the Casolare.

One of our wooden wardrobes and beds.

Dresser with knickknacks.

Also, we had turned on the
heat in our new home last night and nothing happened, so we feared it
was going to be cold until we could ask our real estate agent for
help. Maybe it just takes a few hours for the hot water to get to the
radiators, and the house will be warm when we get there, we
speculated. Anyway, we took our time to get the most of our last few
hours of relaxation before checking out at noon. We said good-bye to
Luca and Roberta, though it was not a permanent good-bye, since we
will bump into them occasionally at the supermarket. We already
know that we have friends coming in the spring who will be staying at
the Casolare, so we will surely be dropping in for some visits.

Hutch with dishes and glasses.

As we drove down via Roma
to our house, we found no parking spaces available, but I was able to
quickly unload our suitcases before any other cars came along. Then I
moved the car outside the city walls, where there is usually parking
available. Luckily, our home is only a hundred meters from the Porta
Nuova (well, it was “new” in the 16th century), the archway
leading out of via Roma, so even if there is no parking on via Roma, we won't have far to walk if we have to park outside the walls.

It took a dozen trips up
and down the stairs to finish moving all of our possessions from the
storeroom to our apartment. As we slowly unpacked, we kept getting
pleasant surprises, kind of like being on an Easter egg hunt.

Light fixture in the living room.

We had
known that the furniture included a couch, two beautiful wood and
iron framed beds, hand-crafted wooden dressers and wardrobes and
numerous other old-fashioned wooden nightstands, bookshelves,
cabinets and hutches, but we hadn’t fully noticed the dozen area
rugs and the 14 hardback wooden chairs that were spread throughout
the rooms. And then, we would open a drawer or look on a shelf and
find some other useful item that the previous owners had left: a
little nightlight, several clocks, abundant cleaning supplies, a
blender, a toaster, two Moka coffee makers, dishes, cups, glasses and
many, many knickknacks that helped make the place look homey. There
was also silverware, sheets, tableclothes and couch pillows. I’m sure we still
haven’t found all the little treats.

Wooden bedstead, night stand with lamp and knickknacks.

Wooden wardrobe.

Outside was sunny and
warm, probably 70 degrees or more, so we opened all the windows to
let in the fresh air. As we feared, the heat didn’t work, but we
weren’t worried because of the warm outside air and the fact that
the sellers had just installed a new pump and had promised that it
worked. The new-looking thermostat had an on-off switch on the
bottom, and it was definitely on, but there must have been a main
switch somewhere that we couldn’t find.

After a couple of hours,
hungry and tired from the exertion, we drove to Altopascio for a late
lunch and found a cozy and reasonably priced trattoria. We had to
wait 15 minutes for a table, but we regarded this as a good sign; the
local people know where to find the best restaurants, and we
concurred with their choice. The red sauce on the gnocchi that I
ordered burst with flavor, and Lucy, who is a gourmand when it comes
to spaghetti alla carbonara, gave her meal a hearty thumbs up.

Rather than go back to
work – after all, we would be here for two weeks – we decided to
check out the prices for two appliances we badly needed, a clothes
washer and an oven, and a third that we could definitely appreciate,
a dishwasher. We looked at Mercatone Uno and Trony, two franchise
stores with branches all over the country. Both were having sales,
but Mercatone’s sale only involved store credit that must be used
from Nov. 16-30, which wouldn’t do us any good. Trony was offering
a one-day sale of 20 percent off on the three items we wanted. They
also offered a reasonable price for installation, so we hurried home
to take some measurements of our kitchen and then returned to
complete our purchases minutes before the store closed.

This will put us way ahead
of schedule as far as home improvements go. The other items on our
agenda are much smaller: put up a mailbox, fix our doorbell, find out
why the hallway to the bathroom smells bad and, of course, unpack our
old belongings. I may also have time to test ride a 36-volt electric
motor bicycle to see if it is powerful enough to boost me up the
Montecarlo hill without having to take a shower immediately
afterward.

We were having too much fun looking
and forgot to take pictures.

That evening – or maybe
I should say night, since Italian events usually don’t start until
at least 9 p.m. – Montecarlo celebrated Halloween with a huge festa
called Montecharloween. Via Roma was closed down for auto traffic at
3 p.m., and food and arts and crafts booths started going up. All we
had to do to be in the midst of the festivities was walk out our
door. Right outside our house were a group of masked adults
organizing games for children, and the laughing and shouting went on
until nearly 1 a.m. We took several strolls down the crowded main
street at various times during the event to view the booths and games
and just people watch. A young woman performed dances with various
flaming batons, ropes and even a hula hoop, and a nearby booth had a
display and performance of live owls and a large raven. The line for
the haunted tunnel was a little too long, so we passed that up.

The main difference
between Italian and American Halloweens is that here the event is
much more social and less oriented towards candy, costumes and games.
Fewer than 20 percent of the people wore costumes, none of the kids
were carrying bags of candy, no prizes were given out after the games
and socializing among all the participants seemed to be a main
activity. It actually seemed not much different than the normal
evening stroll that Italians habitually take. However, the costumes,
games and larger than normal volume of people made it seem like a
passeggiata on steroids. Although Halloween has only become
popular here in recent years and is most an idea imported from
America, it still has a unique Italian flavor. And that is what we
have come here to experience, so it took only one day for our choice
of home locations to be resoundingly confirmed.

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About Me

First off, before you hassle me about our title, Lucy thought of it. Yes, I know some people may think broad is derogatory, but the etymology is uncertain and she doesn’t find it offensive, and it made me laugh. We have been married since 1974 and are empty-nesters now, which allows me to bring my submerged Italophilia into the open. We first came to live in Italy from February-April in 2011 and have returned during the same months every year. From 2011-2015, we lived in San Salvatore, at the foot of the hilltop city Montecarlo, where my paternal grandparents were born, raised and, in 1908, married. In late 2015, we bought a home in Montecarlo. We come for a variety of purposes: We want to re-establish contact with distant cousins in both Nonno’s and Nonna’s families, we want to learn the language and see what it is like to live as Italians in modern Italy, we like to travel and experience different cultures. Even if we aren’t successful at achieving these purposes, we love Italy and enjoy every moment here, so there is no chance we will be disappointed. I am grateful to God for giving me a wife who is beautiful, clever, adaptable and willing to jump into my dreams wholeheartedly.